Arch-Druid of Ravenswood
You see a large owl resting on a branch. Not surprisingly, it begins to speak. The Arch-Druid of the Ravenswood Druid Circle was a mysterious figure who enjoyed speaking in riddles and shifted easily from one animal form to another, eschewing a humanoid form altogether. This shifting led Jura to speculate that the Arch-Druid's natural form may in fact be that of an animal, likely an owl. While he spoke easily in his various animal forms, his emotive responses tended to mirror the animal he resembled at the time; he hooted in affirmation while an owl, and grinned knowingly while a wolf. The Arch-Druid led the Ravenswood druids, although he apparently left for weeks at a time to no one's mind. On the Pathfinder's first visit to the circle, they met him in the form of a 4-foot tall barn owl. On this occasion, he asked the Pathfinders a series of riddles. When they were able to answer them sucessfully, he gave them Fochlucan's Branch and flew away. When the Pathfinders next met him after their extraplanar mishap, he took the form of a mountain lion, a small ape and a mangy wolf all within the span of their conversation. He scolded them mildly for picking his flower, but assured them that if he truly thought that they would have brought harm, he would have stopped them from touching it to begin with. When Rinzler and Jura returned the seed to him, the Arch-Druid gave them a magical drink in exchange. He also posed a riddle to Kat when she asked him which tree would be awoken by Fochlucan's Branch, which she had been using on every tree in sight since its acquisition, which led to her awakening Dragonstorm Treeborn. Before leaving, he informed Jura, to her surprise, that she was now an Arch-Druid herself, leader of the newly-formed druid circle in the Golden Fields. At the end of Leafall, the Arch-Druid sent his younger acolytes to Willowdale. After the Battle of Willowdale, the Arch-Druid seems to have disappeared from the forest, and has not been successfully contacted since. Jura's attempts to Scry his location have failed, and Commune could not determine whether or not he is still alive. The First later described the Arch-Druid as a "permanent guest" in the Bone Ziggurat. The Pathfinders later discovered that the Necromancer was able to absorb powerful individuals by subsuming their souls into the worms that made up his body. This was the fate of the Arch-Druid, and his spirit was released to the afterlife along with the others when the Necromancer was destroyed. When his spirit was contacted, he thanked the Pathfinders, but responded to the question of whether the Ravenswood Circle should be rebuilt only with a ghostly shrug. Riddles Upon their first meeting, the Arch-Druid asked the following riddles of the Pathfinders: *What are the two things that you may never eat for breakfast? **Jura: Lunch and Dinner! *What has eyes but cannot see? **Kat: Fish! **Rinzler: Needles! **Jura: Potatoes! **Alejandra: Storms! *What runs around a city while staying perfectly still? **Alejandra: A Wall! On their second meeting, the Arch-Druid gave the following clue to finding the tree that would become Dragonstorm Treeborn: *You may get sick of it, but you will still see more. The Pathfinders have also asked the following riddles of the Arch-Druid: *Alejandra (while the Arch-Druid was absent): What has four legs in the morning, two legs throughout the day, and three legs at night? Quests *Disappearance of the Druids Category:NPC Category:Ravenswood Category:Deceased